Investigation of the Anti-Diabetic and Antioxidant Activities of Physalis angulata Extract

Physalis angulata (PA) is a plant under the Solanaceae family playing an important role in the remedy of inflammatory symptoms such as asthma, hepatitis, dermatitis, rheumatism and treatment of several health disorders, such as cold, cough, fever, pain, malaria and nervous diseases. Besides, P. angulata has been used as a traditional medicine for amelioration of hyperglycemia. Thus, this study aimed to investigate mechanism of action of P. angulata for its anti-diabetic activity using an in vitro model. Ethanol extract of PA was prepared under the condition of ethanol 98% and ratio of ¼ (w/v) for 4 hours at 60°C. The concentrations of 50, 100, and 200 µg/mL of PA extract were used for all assays. The alpha-amylase inhibition was investigated via dinitrosalicylic acid assay. Glucose uptake was determined using LO-2 cell model. Radical scavenging activity was performed via 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate (DPPH) and 2,2-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS)+ assays. Nitric oxide production was measured by Griess reaction, while cell viability was examined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The result showed that PA extract was able to inhibit alpha-amylase activity up to 56.6 ± 4.7% at the concentration of 200 µg/mL. Moreover, PA possessed glucose adsorption and glucose uptake capacities up to 2.2 ± 0.18 mM glucose/g extract and 156 ± 10.1%, respectively. In addition, PA extract scavenged 52.6 ± 3.5% DPPH and 59.7 ± 2.6% ABTS+ radicals and reduced NO production to 34.2 ± 3.8% from RAW264.7 cells. Consequently, P. angulata can be suggested as a pharmaceutical ingredient for the development of anti-diabetic agent.